Make America Great Again
(media.greatawakening.win)
You're viewing a single comment thread. View all comments, or full comment thread.
Comments (55)
sorted by:
"America had been founded by rebels, mostly tax rebels, in 1776. The American Revolution can essentially be summed up as a trade war with Britain. The famous ‘Boston Tea Party’ we all learned about was a protest over taxation regarding British tea. Somehow, a mere three percent tax on British tea was enough to start a revolution. As with many lessons from history, important context is usually forgotten, even omitted altogether, that would help explain confusing details like this. “The merchants were not protesting against the three pennies for a pound of tea; what they were protesting is what today we call ‘dumping.’ It is considered an unfair trading practice for the companies of one country to dump goods on the markets of another country to harm local businesses.” The British were trying to undercut the smuggled Dutch tea that was more expensive and had been preferred in America for many years.
However, the colonists understood the long-term consequences that would arise if the British were allowed to continue. “In defense of Boston merchants, the implications of the underpriced tea were disturbing. If a monopoly could be granted for tea, it could also be granted for other products, and become a device to punish anti-British merchants and reward Loyalists.” Indeed, unfair taxation to the point of becoming burdensome was just a likely possibility; but it was enough to motivate the birth of another great republic."
-from a paper I wrote in college.
I got an A thankfully! I didn't cover naval impressment though, as my paper was focused on the implications of taxation regarding secession and the Civil War. The closest thing to naval impressment that I covered was the Fort Sumter attack and how the media covered it. But again, my focus was strictly on taxes, interest, tax law, tax history, and how I believe it was the biggest factor in causing the Civil War.
I turned it in around May 2020. No, slavery certainly was a factor. I'd say it ranked anywhere from 2nd to 5th or 6th, depending on the state. The issues were different for everyone. Here's how I summed it up:
"The issues of slavery, westward expansion, internal improvements, and others were paramount to different interests in different states, and at different times. The shifting interests of each state defined what each political party platformed on, and this is one reason why the tariff and revenue issues do not normally pop up during a traditional study of the Civil War."
Also,
"...for the sake of focus and clarity on the subject, we must first put aside all moral reservations and then concede the fact that slavery was a major issue that led to secession and the ‘War of the Rebellion,’ or Civil War; just as westward expansion, internal improvements, and states’ rights were. Preceding all of these issues, though, were the disagreements over tariff and revenue legislation. Indeed, “freedom from oppressive taxation had caused the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and throughout history revolts and rebellions too numerous to mention. The War of the Rebellion, as it was officially called, had at its core what has been at the core of most rebellions from our earliest historical records.” Revolutionary wars; civil wars; world wars; even the most popular fictional wars, more often than not, reveal the initial motivation for war in the ‘opening credits.’ A long time ago in a colony far, far away…"
It's an interesting topic to say the least.